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Robert Leeshock

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Robert Leeshock
Born
Robert Michael Leeshock

(1961-12-13) December 13, 1961 (age 63)
Clifton, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation(s)Actor, writer, producer
Years active1993–present
Partner(s)Jacquelyn Mavrookas
(2010-present)

Robert Michael Leeshock (born December 13, 1961) is an American actor. He is best known in television for portraying the role of Liam Kincaid on the sci-fi drama series Earth: Final Conflict.

Early life

Leeshock was born in Clifton, New Jersey. He attended Cornell University as an arts and science major, then graduated with a degree in materials science engineering. After earning his degree, he moved to New York City to pursue his acting career.

Career

Leeshock is best known in television for portraying the role of Liam Kincaid on the sci-fi drama series Earth: Final Conflict from 1998 to 2001. In 2005, he joined the cast of the long-running ABC daytime drama One Life to Live as Bruce Bartlett, the business partner of Nash Brennan (played by Forbes March).

He trained as an actor with Wynn Handman, director of The American Place Theater. He has penned the screenplay Yo Yo Boy as well as characters for stand up venues in New York and Los Angeles. In addition to acting, he works as a professional photographer from his studio in New York City and produces projects for both film and television. In 2010, Leeshock appeared on United States television in commercials for Zegerid OTC. In early 2012, he both executive produced and starred in the short film GodMachine, which also features his former Earth: Final Conflict co-star Von Flores.

Biography

A native from New Jersey,[1] Leeshock's ethnic background is a mix of Polish, Czech, English, Irish and Italian.[2] He moved to New York in the early 1980s[1] after his high school studies.[3]

He first enrolled as an Arts and Science major at Cornell University.[4] He transferred to engineering[5] before the second semester of Junior year, even though his adviser urged him not to do so.[6] But it didn't take long for him to find himself struggling in that field.[5] Yet he managed to complete his degree in materials science engineering[4] and electrical engineering[1] (in semiconductor[7] electronics and the electrical properties of materials in silicon wafers) but decided not to work as an engineer.[8]

Leeshock was left undecided about what profession to choose.[5] He didn't know yet that acting was a profession.[5] One of his friend from college was a liberal arts major and taking acting class. That fascinated him. Theater was unknown to him and becoming a movie star wasn't his goal.[8] To learn more about acting as a profession, he got a job at a restaurant to study actors and comprehend them.[5] He viewed this as the beginning of his training. Hoping to regain both his Arts and Sciences sensibilities he became an actor after theater training in New York.[6] He thought this could be a nice way to learn about himself.[8] It took him two and half years to realize he was an actor, rather than a personality.[5]

In New York, Leeshock took training classes in scene study with Wynn Handman, director of The American Place Theater.[4] He also trained in the Meisner technique, in comedy improvisation and in voice.[1][9] His other activities included waiting tables, doing commercials and performing in theater productions.[10]

He performed with several theater companies, including The Complex, West Bank Cafe (where he also created original characters), SoHo Repertory, The (Samuel) Beckett Theatre and The Actors Factory.[1] He wrote the screenplay Yo Yo Boy and created characters for stand up comedies in New York and Los Angeles.[4] He lived in L.A. for three years, from 1993 to 1996, where he pursued acting in theatre (at The Complex) and wrote a one-man show.[9]

After Beverly Hills 90210, he left L.A. for Mexico where he stayed seven months.[8] It was for the filming of the TV series Empire (the American version of the telenovella Imperio de Cristal), which never aired. Then he returned to L.A. where he started writing a semi-autobiographical one-man show about life experiences.[8]

Leeshock's first onscreen acting role was in the daytime drama Loving. He has appeared in over 30 commercials[10] (such as Zegerid OTC and Colace),[11] in the prime time drama series Beverly Hills 90210, in soap operas (including All My Children, Guiding Light, and Another World), in Empire and in the independent film Elysian Fields.

He auditioned in Los Angeles for Gene Roddenberry's Earth: Final Conflict with Lisa Howard[2] for Jonas McCord (executive producer and writer), then met Paul Gertz (also executive producer writer).[8] They were both pleased with his performance. He joined the cast in the second season (1998) as Liam Kincaid (a human-Kimera hybrid),[12] replacing Kevin Kilner as the lead actor.[9] This is the role for which he is most famous.[3] After two seasons in the series, Leeshock was comfortable in his role[8] but found playing a lead character exhaustive and a huge responsibility.[5] He was released from the series as a business decision to minimize production costs;[10] television producers pay less tax when they use Canadian actors.[13] He left after the fourth season to return for the series finale in season 5.[9]

After Earth: Final Conflict, he appeared in other soap operas (As the World Turns and One Life to Live).[10]

His first work as a producer was with the short film Godmachine.[6] The head writer who came up with the idea is Richard Cranor.[6][14] They have a mutual friend who suggested that Leeshock read the first draft of the script.[6][14] He and his friend Scott Gunderson (actor and writer) worked over the script.[14][15] Then he gathered other members for his team. They produced a short version of the film and want to make a movie from it.[6][14][15]

With Richard Cranor, he founded Titan Sky Entertainment in March 2012.[16] Leeshock (executive producer and writer), Richard Cranor (writer, producer and director) and Kiki Yeung (actress and producer) attended The American Film Market (AFM) in November 2013.[17] They presented GodMachine and other projects.

Besides being an actor, a writer and a producer,[18] Leeshock works as a professional photographer from his studio[18] (Robert Leeshock Photography, established in June 2009)[16] in New York and New Jersey[19] creating projects for film and television.[4] He specializes in family portraits, weddings, events, actors' headshots and commercial print.[11][19]

He's also an excellent athlete (he played lacrosse for Cornell),[3] salsa dancer[3][7] and singer.[7] He currently lives in New York,[7] has one brother and three sisters.[7][11] His girlfriend is Jacquelyn Mavrookas.[14][20] They met in 2010.[21]

Associations

Leeshock joined the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity at Cornell University, and through that organization, the Irving Literary Society.[22]

Filmography

Actor
Year Film Role Other notes
2014 Surrender Clay
2013 Scavenger Killers Phil Chaney
2012 Come As You Are Coach Randle Short film
GodMachine Sgt. John Lee Short film
The Dead Reckoning Seth Granger
2011 3 Weeks to Daytona Buddy
2009 Law & Order: Criminal Intent Kip McGonagle Episode: "All In"
2004–2006 One Life to Live Bruce Bartlett 5 episodes
2004 As the World Turns Alan Drake Unknown episodes
Walk Away Tim Johnson
Dead End Road Larry LeShockre
1998–2002 Earth: Final Conflict Liam Kincaid 67 episodes
1998 Guiding Light Eddie Banks 6 episodes
1997 Life's Work Jeff Episode: "Dates"
1995 Empire James Lambert TV Movie
1993–1994 Beverly Hills, 90210 Keith Christopher 8 episodes
1993 Me and Veronica Jimmy
Elysian Fields Albert Turner Short film
1992 All My Children Jay
1983 Loving Monty Unknown episodes

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Tripod
  2. ^ a b Xpose27 Archived 2014-01-06 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ^ a b c d Visimag10
  4. ^ a b c d e ShareTV
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Angelfire
  6. ^ a b c d e f Clare Revell
  7. ^ a b c d e The Alien Web Bio Archived 2010-04-07 at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ a b c d e f g The Alien Web Hero Archived 2014-01-06 at the Wayback Machine
  9. ^ a b c d Everything2
  10. ^ a b c d Google book
  11. ^ a b c Manta
  12. ^ Visimag12[permanent dead link‍]
  13. ^ Airlock Alpha
  14. ^ a b c d e SciFiPulse Radio
  15. ^ a b SciFiPulse
  16. ^ a b LinkedIn
  17. ^ Titan Sky Entertainment
  18. ^ a b SciFi and TV Talk
  19. ^ a b Robert Leeshock Archive
  20. ^ Hobokengirl
  21. ^ Instagram Eventfully Jacquelyn[permanent dead link‍]
  22. ^ Cornell University Residence Plan of 1966, Schedule I, Appendix A (May 3, 1966)(see sixth page of document noting the relationship between Phi Kappa Psi and the Irving Literary Society); see also’’, List of Phi Kappa Psi/Irving Literary Society Members (Aug. 18, 2011).
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